State denies pothole damage claim

none

June 7, 2010 9:00:00 PM PDT

CARY --

A Triangle woman is demanding answers after her car was badly damaged by a pothole.Cary resident Sherrie Mazur says she and her husband were headed out to dinner in March, when they ran into a huge pothole on Morrisville Parkway in Cary.

"We heard a terrible sound, we pulled over and basically I had two flat tires," Mazur said. "It was a crater. I actually got into it and the pothole came up to my ankle."

Mazur, who is married to ABC11 Sports Anchor Joe Mazur, was one of several people who has fallen victim to the pothole.

Her car was so badly damaged, they couldn't drive it home. It also took a week to fix the $2,000 in damages the hole caused.

"Two flat tires and my wheels had to be repaired, because it ruined both rims," Sherri Mazor said.

So she contacted the Town of Cary, which told her to submit a claim to the state.

"I wrote it all down, I submitted all my expenses and was told that they'd take everything into consideration and consider paying for the repair bill," she said.

Then last week, Mazur received a letter from the Department of Justice saying her claim was denied because it had no prior knowledge of the pothole and could not correct a problem it didn't know existed.

But Mazur says the Town of Cary had told her that the particular pothole on Morrisville Parkway had been reported several times since the beginning of the year. She says that's why she finds the letter insulting and is frustrated that the state is failing to take responsibility for what happened.

"It would be one thing if they said we can't afford it, we have a budget deficit, but the fact that they're just blatantly saying we didn't know about it, is really rubbing me the wrong way," Mazur said.

Mazur says she plans to write back to the state, hoping to get clarification on their reasoning.